A Wound That Never Heals
by den7201
Summary: After the tragic ending of Marissa's life, everything had finally gone back to normal, Ryan had found a new girlfriend in Taylor and everyone seems contented at last. but what will happen when they realize that the supposed 'death' never took place?


**A/N :** This is my first here so I'm sorry if it's not as good as the others here but please feel free to criticize and review hope you guys like the story, and please tell me if you guys would prefer a Ryan and Marissa pairing or Ryan and Taylor for this story.

**Chapter 1 : The Bad Dream**

_**"There are two kinds of tragedies in life,**_

_**losing your heart's desire and gaining it."**_

**_-George Bernard Shaw-_**

Death. Such a powerful word. A single word that could change one's life completely. It says it all. Pain, deceit, depression, anger, relief, sadness, grief, regret, happiness and sadness all at the same time. A blend of emotions in one word. Putting an end to unspoken wishes, unfulfilled ambitions, dreams that can no longer come true.

The pain comes rushing so quickly, you won't be able to feel it at first, but when it finally seeps in it's the worst possible feeling that you could ever encounter. The hollow feeling of nothingness inside of you, the warmth and happiness you used to have being taken away.

They say that time heals all, but we all know that the pain leaves a mark that never goes away. Losing someone so important to you makes you feel so helpless, so hollow, so empty. Sometimes it takes something as powerful as death to make you realize how much you care about them, how much they matter to you. The realization would be too late and all we have left is the emptiness that could never be filled, a scar that could never be healed.

And then…..

Darkness falls.

The pitch black sky haunted the ground below, overshadowing it and everything in its path. It was unusually cold, the weather was anything but bearable. The path was empty, the roads were completely deserted. There wasn't a single source of light in the area and it made it difficult to see where the path was leading to. All you can do is keep walking, with the anticipation and curiosity of what lies ahead.

The dusty ground beneath slippers did not exactly make the journey any easier. Small particles of dirt keep coming in, making it uncomfortable to move in. The strong wind blew making her shoulders shiver and forcing her arms to rub them vigorously back and forth to help them keep warm. The trip was made longer, but after several stops the path finally came to an end.

With much disappointment, it seemed that the end of the long and winding road had a dead end when all that could be seen was a big stone wall. After a couple of sighs of disappointment, it was decided that it was best to just turn back and find another path that could lead to where home is. Just as these thoughts were forming, and she slowly turned around, as a blinding white light emerged from the wall.

It was so sudden, it caused much pain to the eyes, so she shielded them with her arms immediately from the light as her eyelids started to close. Now nothing could be seen, but sounds could definitely be heard and the cold could still be felt. The strong winds that had been endured during the entire trip was now turning into what seemed like even stronger blizzards, leaves and other things could be heard as they were being blown everywhere by the blistering winds. A certain force could be felt too, coming from the wall, and it was unsure whether it was a really strong wind or not since it succeeded in pushing the fragile body in front of the wall backwards and onto the ground below it.

Soon after, the winds had stopped blowing, and everything was in complete silence. The light had started to dim and it seemed safe to remove the arm that had been covering her eyes as its shield. Though her legs were weakened by the strong winds, it somehow managed to find the strength to get up again. The light, at this point has dimmed, making it bearable to look at the wall again.

After a short while had passed, a silhouette of three people could be seen coming from the stoned wall. The edges of the figures were lined with the white light as they slowly walked away from the wall and towards the person in front of it. As they came closer, it was clear that it was three children who were slowly approaching.

There were two girls and one boy who emerged from the shadowy path. Strangely, they all looked really familiar, the little boy had blonde hair and was wearing a wife beater, one of the girls had brown hair and was skipping as they walked, obviously giddy about something, the other little girl was quiet, she looked really unhappy and somewhat troubled, she had blonde hair and was tall for her age. The boy and the perky little girl started playing and running around the place like what most children do while the other little girl just sat quietly in a corner.

She felt sorry for the girl, so she started to approach her. She made her way to her and sat beside her. The little girl looked up to her with her blue green eyes and she could see fear and confusion in them.

"Don't be afraid." She said trying to ease her fear.

"I should be telling you the same thing." The little girl replied in an oddly familiar voice. "Y-You can see me?"

"Of course." she replied, a bit shocked at her question. "Why wouldn't I?"

"Nothing." The girl sighed as she looked back down to the ground.

A moment of silence passed before a question was raised to the little girl. "Why are you so sad? Don't you wanna go play with your friends?" she asked cautiously.

They both looked at the two kids, who were now playing hide and seek.

The little girl looked at her feet as she replied. "No. It would be a useless effort to try to play with them."

"Why is that?" she asked.

"They'll just go right past me." She said sadly. "Like I don't exist….everyone acts that way, in fact you're the only one who can see me, Summer."

She looked at the little girl with absolute shock. "Y-You know who I am?"

"Of course I do Sum." She said. "We're best friends."

"W-What?" she asked confused. "I mean, I'm really flattered and all, but I don't understand, we just met."

"I would expect you of all people to understand." She said. "Please don't pretend I don't exist too."

"Of course I know you exist and I know that you're really lonely and all but I can't just be your best friend, we just met and how do you know my name?"

The little girl sighed. "I knew this could happen."

"You knew that what could happen?"

The girl looked straight into Summer's eyes like she was trying to look for some sort of sign. Summer saw her own reflection in the girl's glassy, deep blue green eyes which seemed already filling up with tears. She felt really sorry for her, she seemed to be in much pain.

"I'm not dead Sum, please don't act like I am."

As the little girl said those words, and as she was looking her right in the eye, she swore that for at least a split second she saw someone else's face looking at her, someone so unexpected, someone she thought that she would never see again, and it got even weirder when her voice was heard too. The words that came out of her mouth haunted Summer as it echoed through her mind and not just because of what she said, because she said it in a different voice, a voice that she hadn't heard in such a long time, yet her voice was so clear she knew exactly who that voice belonged to…Marissa.

"M-Marissa? Is that you?" Summer asked shakily.

The little girl simply nodded and it was all clear, it was clear why she saw Marissa through her eyes, it was clear why she thought that the little girl had looked so familiar, or why she knew Summer's name and said that she was her best friend, the only thing that wasn't clear to her was what she had just said.

"What do you mean you're not dead?" Summer asked, still totally confused.

Before the girl could reply, she looked back at the wall which was lighting up again. She looked back at Summer and smiled.

"Goodbye Sum." She said "I'll see you soon."

"What? What do you mean?"

"It's time to get up." She said as she made her way to the wall along with the other two kids.

"Wait-" before this sentence could be finished, the figures in front of her had slowly started to vanish. The last thing she saw was the mysterious little girl waving her goodbye.

The blinding flash of white light came once more, causing her eyes to close. She felt a strong hand pushing her body back and forth, in order to wake her up.

Her eyes slowly opened, unwillingly and identified the face in front of it immediately.

"Taylor?"

"Good morning Summer!" Taylor said in her usual perky tone. "Time to get up!"

"W-What happened?" Summer said as she sat up, she found herself on her bed

"I've been trying to wake you up." Taylor said. "Sleeping through your alarm is not a good sign."

"I-I didn't hear my alarm go off." Summer said.

"Well, there's no time to explain anymore, we were supposed to meet Ryan and Seth at the comic book store ten minutes ago, so we have to hurry." Taylor said as she rushed towards her room across the hall.

Summer was left sitting on her bed, still with confusion. What had just happened? Was it all a dream? Did the dream mean anything? She knew that ghosts don't just drop in your dreams once in a while, and she never had any of these dreams after the accident. Sure she had some illusions, like seeing Marissa's ghost in her room months ago, but nothing like this ever happened. She thought back to the little girl, she was obviously Marissa when they were younger and the little boy must have been Ryan and the other little girl must have been Taylor since she was so perky. It was all starting to make sense, but what did it mean exactly? And what did the younger version of Marissa mean when she said that she wasn't dead?

She tried shrugging her thoughts off of her mind. This was crazy. She threw off her covers and rushed to the shower. She didn't want to be late, especially since her and Seth were not doing so well in their relationship and she didn't want them to argue any further. This whole thing with Marissa was just a dream…right? Summer quickly washed her face and stared at herself in the mirror. These things don't just happen.

**A/N: **okay so I hope you guys liked it and please review so I'll know if I should continue this.


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